The invention relates to a telecommunication assembly comprising various terminals that share a transmission channel via a base station. The transmission channel may be, for example, a telephone line which forms part of a telephone network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,523 describes an exchange which interfaces a two-wire public telephone line to two standard telephones and four auto-dial/auto-answer modem devices. The telephone handset on port number one has been selected for priority of use over the remaining ports in that if the telephone handset goes off-hook, any auto-dial/auto-answer modem-equipped device that is connected to the exchange will be disconnected.
It is an object of the invention to provide a telecommunication assembly as mentioned above which allows greater user satisfaction.
The invention takes the following aspects into consideration. Let it be assumed that a low-priority terminal wants to use the telephone line while a high-priority terminal is using the telephone line. In the background art, a low-priority terminal is disconnected from the base station when a high-priority terminal is using the line. Consequently, to a user of the low priority terminal, it seems as if the telephone line is dead or as if a plug has been pulled out. The user of the low-priority terminal has, in principle, no knowledge whatsoever concerning the reason for which he or she cannot make use of the telephone line. This can annoy the user.
An other aspect which can annoy a user is the following. Let it be assumed that a high-priority terminal requests access to the telephone line while two low-priority terminals are communicating with each other, that is, while an internal communication is taking place. In the background art, the low-priority terminals will be disconnected from the base station and, consequently, the internal communication will be cut off. This will annoy the users who were internally communicating via the two low-priority terminals. In addition, users will generally be annoyed if they can not establish an internal communication because a high priority terminal is effecting an external communication via the telephone line.
According to the invention the base station comprises communication-and-control circuitry for providing a communication channel between the base station and each terminal irrespective of whether a high-priority terminal has been granted access to the transmission channel. This allows a low-priority terminal to receive a message from the base station telling the low-priority terminal that it can not use the telephone line for reasons of priority. The message may optionally include an identification of the high-priority terminal which is using the telephone line. Accordingly, a user of the low-priority terminal can be informed about who or what is preventing him or her from effecting an external communication. In addition, once the high-priority terminal has ended its use of the telephone line, the base station may signal this to a low-priority terminal which has been denied access to the telephone line. Accordingly, the user of this low-priority terminal is informed that he or she can effect an external communication. Since, in the invention, the base station maintains a communication channel with each terminal, this allows an internal communication between two different low-priority terminals while a high-priority terminal uses the telephone line. Any of these aspects makes that the invention allows greater user satisfaction.